Report from the Club World Cup

Trip Report from Abbas Mohammadian (Team Leader and Coach)

World Club Cup Championship

December 6-9

Tehran, Iran

This year the World Club Cup Championships was held in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. The competition also featured the new modifications to the UWW rules.

The Weigh-ins

The fourth round of the freestyle wrestling competition featured the presence of ten foreign teams and three Iranian teams. The competition took place on December 7th and 8th in the Freedom Sports Complex auditorium, which played out to its nearly 15,000-seat capacity. By the end of the competition, Team Easy Pipe of Kashan won the team title while Team Titan Mercury from the United States and the Sari Stars finished second and third respectively. In the end, Team Canada placed a respectable 10th in a very competitive field, with wins over Tajikistan and Bulgaria and would lose very close matches to India and Kazakhstan. In addition to this, the competition level of the tournament was very high thanks in large part to the participation of over sixteen World and Olympic medallists.

Jordan Steen (Photo property of ISNA Photo)

The members of Team Canada were composed of six wrestlers from The Montreal YMHA and three others from Ontario. In addition to this, one 1S Official from Ontario also accompanied the team.

Team Canada

On a personal note, this was the first time that I was able to represent Team Canada as a coach and team leader in an international event. Even though there many challenges that I had to overcome in order to make this happen, in the end I was very happy to be a part of this great team.

Coaches Rob Moore and Abbas Mohammadian

Team Canada left for the competition on December 4th and returned on December 15th. There were two days competition and over seven wrestling practices at the main training centre. I was also able to take the Canadian team to some other wrestling clubs for some practices as well as to my family home for dinner. We were also able to do some shopping in the Historical Bazaar of Tehran.

Trevor Banks receives some advice between rounds

During the trip, I was able to meet several times with the Iranian Wrestling Federation. I'm very thankful to the Iranian Wrestling Federation for the opportunity to organize this trip as well Wrestling Canada Lutte and of course, the Montreal YMHA for all their support.

Abbas Mohammadian

Team Leader and Coach

President of the Quebec Officials Association

Final Results Individual Results for our Quebec athletes:

FS 61 kg Trevor Banks

vs. Strahil Paralov (BGR) – W 5-0

vs. Ravinder (IND) – L 0-4

vs. Sharifov Dzhamshed (TAJ) – L 4-0

vs. Assylkhan Karipbekov (KAZ) – L 10-0

FS 74 kg Guseyn Ruslanzada

vs. Nazariy Kulchytskyy (USA) – L 0-10

vs. Persiyan Mihov (BGR) – L 1-6